K
Joined: Mar 27, 2002
Posts: 1506
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K
I completly identify with the ancestor worship thing, Sven was writing about. As I said some time ago, one of the most gratifying things about tiki has been the connection it has created between me and my Dad. Reading and learning about this era has really deepened my understanding of who he is and why.
In the mid-fifties, he blew everyone in his family away by getting married and moving to Indonesia with my mother. In his work for the State Department, he spent a number of years in the South Pacific, Japan and Korea, while making stopovers in Hawaii. He also wrote a book about Indonesia and one about Korea (where I was born). Eventually, he moved our family to Hawaii in the late 60's, where we lived for six years.
Although I grew up surrounded by Asian artifacts and culture, and was forced to listen to Les Baxter, Martin Denny, etc., I didn't understand or appreciate how this environment connected to a cultural pattern. I just thought it was kind of weird.
Now I undersand that my Dad actually lived the tiki dream instead of just reading about it, or listening to it on the stereo. He went about as native as a white guy from Chicago could, and still maitain a family.
This year when I go to his house for Thanksgiving, I can't wait to surprise him with my newly acquired Sandwich Isles jacket. (Its a sport coat with an aloha shirt pattern, and its identical to the one he wore in Hawaii when he was in his mid-40s, about my age).
:)
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